MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC

New Zealand Herald, Volume XXXI, Issue 9581, 4 August 1894, Page 4 (Supplement)

MUSICAL AND DRAMATIC

The Thornton-Arnold Company have beei playing to crowded audiences at the Open House. This week Mr. Charles Arnold has appeared in "Captain Fritz," his pari being one of those characters which he ha! made his own, and which lifts the piece t< a high level. The " committee of the exhibition ir Antwerp have decided to provide prizes t( the value of £320 for competitions betweer sociations, to be held on some of the Sundays home and foreign vocal and instrumental asbetween this and September. The Hymn of Apollo, which was mentioned as having been discovered some time since during the excavations at Delphi, has, after a careful study and rehearsal, been performed at Athens. The music is original, simple, yet grand, and produced a profound impression on the audience; an encore being given at the express desire of the King, who was present. Another odd thing is that Gounod's " Romeo" was by no means a success at first. Even with Patti and Mario it was a quasi-failure, and it has never been a real "draw" until the advent of Melba and the De Reszke brothers. Edouard de Reszke has one of the most wonderful bass voices over bestowed on a mortal. It is not only tremendously powerful, but also sweet and rich in the extreme, and like his tenor brother he is a masterly singer and actor. What with the superb singing of those three, the little less admirable contributions of their associates, the large and splendid chorus and orchestra, the ensemble was something long to be enjoyably remembered. Sir Augustus Harris has never ' done anything better, and he was rewarded with a house that was in itself quite a magnificent spectacle. What with royalty, beauty, aristocracy, diamonds,, and numbers, Covent Garden that night presented one of those scenes which are rarely witnessed and never forgotten. Rubinstein has his own idea about oratorio music. The following is attributed to him:—The oratorio is a form of art against which I have always been inclined to protest. The best-known master works of this kind have always (not in their study, but in hearing of performances) left me cold, and indeed have often made an unpleasant impression on me; the stiffness of the forms alike musical, and especially the poetic, have seemed to me incomplete contradiction to the high dramatic nature of the matter When I hear and see the subline characters of the Old and 2s ew Testament sung by gentlemen in black frocks, with white neckties and yellow gloves, and a notebook before their faces, or by ladies in the most modern and often the most extravagant toilet, I am so disturbed by it that I never have any pure enjoyment." Some of the Presbyterian Church leaders in Scotland have been discussing the expediency of having male voice instead of mixed chorus for the Sunday services. The idea is enough to make John Knox turn in his grave; and unfortunately the dreaded wedge has already got at Peebles and else- ! where. Dr. Marshall Lang is in favour of the innovation, but rightly doubts if the people will be ready for it for a considerable time to come; and he adds that " any attempt displace woman from choirs would j be most unpopular." Of course it would. Think of the effect which a pretty soprano or an engaging contralto must have upon the attendance and the enthusiasm of the tenors and basses ! Dr. Lang is disturbed about the dress of the proposed male choir. "A boy choir in which one has tweeds, another has an Eton jacket, another has a blouse, is unseemly." But is there no unseemliness, then, in the present varied dress of the lady choir members ? Our London correspondent, writing on June 16, says :Visitors from New Zealand often come and ask me my real opinion about Madame Melba, otherwise Mrs. Armstrong, formerly of Melbourne. " Honestly now," tbey say, "is she so good as the papers make out; and worth going to hear and paying for f Well, I went twice within the last week to hear her in her two greatest parts on purpose to be able to answer that question "up to date." * My verdict must be emphatically in the affirmative. Farjeon, the ex-Zealandian novelist, once told me in London that much harm was done to his earlier English career by certain people persistently referring to him as the legitimate successor of Charles Dickens in that famous author's special field. I think the same mistake has been made by those who speak and write of Melba as Patti's successor, or who talk of Patti's mantle having fallen upon the Australian prima donna. This, in my opinion, is inaccurate. Melba is not an Adelina Patti, and never, according to my judgment, will be. I consider she falls short of Patti in every separate quality of a great prima donna—voice, singing, acting, and personal appearance. Bat with that single qualification I have nothing else but the highest praise to give. ■ Her voice is simply delightful. Although its compass is not phenomenal, which really does not matter, there is a freshness and a bright, youthful ring, a pure sweetness about it which is full of charm, and she nse3 it like a thorough artist. I have just seen an adjective applied to her voice ■which exactly describes it, and that is crystalline." Moreover, the acts very nicely, if not greatly, and has an extremely pleasing stage presence. As we cannot get Patti in opera nowadays we may be very thankful to have such a substitute (not '"successor") as Melba. I heard her in Donizetti's "Lucia"that dear tuney old opera which some ultra-up-to-datists vote old-fashioned and duli—which was revived specially for her, and in which she gave a delivery of the mad seen a that positively and deservedly electrified the house. •Her Juliet in Gounod's setting of the '•-Romeo" story is perhaps her greatest role of .aIL That opera, you will remember, was expressly chosen for the grand festal wedding night last year. Then, as in this case, the cast was incomparable, including as it did the two De Reszke brothers—the greatest living operatic tenor and basso— as Romeo and Friar Lawrence respectively. On the present occasion (last Tuesday) we j had not only those three stars of the first order, but also Plancon, the eminent, French baritone, as Capulet, Lucile Hill as Stefano, Banermeister as the nurse, while Vaachelli, Ririaldini, Bonnard, and Albers were also in this amazing casta veritable constellation ! I should say it is the strongest ever Been on that stage. I suppose you know that Jean de Reszke was singing on the same stage as a baritone ten years ago—l heard him as Assur in ".Semiramide" (with Patti and Scalchi— another marvellous association !) and in other works. Then he suddenly became a high robuefc tenor, and now takes his top chest notes like a Tamberlik or Mongini used to do. "Utopia, Limited," the best thing Gilbert (but nob Sullivan) has yet given us has j finished its ran, and after seven month*" continuance has been taken off. It was time. . Latterly there were unmistakable tokens that it had " shot its bolt." It had become much too easy to get a seat. Too many vacant places were nightly to be seen. And so D'Oyley Carte had to take ib off. A seven months' run is good enough, but more was expected from the early enthusiasm. •It seemed to me that " Constantinople" at Olympia killed ib.- Ever since that started the Utopia houses have fallen off, I don't) know exactly why. But so ib was. " ' ' • '■ Unluckily thab often -> repeated and as often contradicted story about the author and composer having had another difference proves to be only too true, and another Gilbert-Sullivan opera is nob to succeed " Utopia." It is said that Gilbert is on the look-out for a composer to set his libretto, and that Sullivan is trying to find someone who? will furnish him with a good " book of words*' for his music. Meanwhile, the Savoy is to see a French adaptation which may or may nob prove an attraction. Ido hope ib will not turn, out another "Jane Annie" —that ghastly piece of dreary and witless tomfoolery which occupied the Savoy stage for a time last year, and was brilliantly successful alike in first boring the audience and then emptying the theatre. But I confess to having misgivings about this new piece. The " preliminary notices somehow don'b impress me as genuine. There is a puffy ring about them which inspires me with doubt and dread. I may be wrong. We shall see. Meanwhile, the Savoy is closed. lam very sorry for the sake of this summer's New Zealand visitors that they will mis« ao splendid a spectacle and ad singularly bright and amusing a play as " Utopia" was. v ; - Amy Sherwin -continues to sing ab the best concerts, including : the 'Philharmonic, for - which she is engaged with flattering frequency. : M usicc-Dbamaiicds, :. v •; V:"- ■: V: 'I'■■- - * ' ' Vo■v -.V-. v:;: V-.-.v. •,-••■: